TV3 news

Tuesday, 20 July 1999, 6:17 pm
Article: Alastair Thompson

1. GANG FENCE DOWNED: Gang fence bulldozed under new laws in Christchurch. Highway 61 fence brought down by council diggers 10 years after police first wanted to do so. Neighbours not keen to publicly support the council. Gang is not commenting. Hastily built fence went up late today.

2. JFK JUNIOR: Chilling evidence about JFK Junior's final flight. The plane was falling at 6000 feet per minute. The plane is thought to have been in a speed spiral. Investigators say the aircraft had passed a regular inspection . Plane has not yet been found on the ocean floor.

3. JFK JUNIOR: Live from Hyannisport: Caroline Kennedy has not spoken to media yet. Ted Kennedy has left to go to New York and we believe he went to see Caroline. Kennedy family statement says the family is overwhelmed with grief and is relying heavily on faith.

4. ELECTRICITY: NZ First has decided to string the government along over electricity regulation legislation. Winston Peters appears to be playing for time. Winston isn't saying whether he will come to the government's rescue or not yet. It looks just like the coalition days when Peters held the balance of power. ACT says it will never work with any coalition which relies on NZ First.

5. SCOTT WATSON TRIAL: Court finished early today after technical malfunction called problems. Video conference system for overseas witnesses failed. Court started an hour late after Juror got caught in traffic. Court hampered by technical difficulties - video evidence kept malfunctioning. After lunch Christchurch witnesses didn't turn up because no flights arrived and then video evidence came from Western Australia. Christchurch witnesses have now arrived after fog cleared in Christchurch.

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

6. APPEAL COURT: Appeal Court has ordered a new trial for a Danniverke man who is suing the police over being framed for a drug prosection.

7. WANGANUI DEATH: A 14-year-old boy who bled to death in Wanganui is believed to have been playing with explosives - earlier the death had been thought to have involved a firearm.

8. BLACKOUT ABANDONED:Plans to turn lights out in Auckland in a Bledisloe Cup - Blackout - promotion has been abandoned after the problem raised concerns that the National Grid could not cope with people turning the lights back on all at once.

Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

Contact Alastair Thompson

Top Scoops Headlines

COMMENT

Bill Bennett: Another Pacific cable for NZ by 2026

An Auckland link will be added to the trans-Pacific submarine cable being built by Vocus and Google. Spark uses MBNZ technology to highlight fixed wireless performance. 2degrees appears to be winning mobile market share.

Suze Wilson - The Conversation: Luxon’s Leadership Test; What Would It Take To Win Back Unimpressed NZ Voters?

Based on those poll numbers, the National-led coalition would be out of office if an election were held now. And Luxon’s “preferred prime minister” rating fell further to 23%.

Gordon Campbell: On The Coalition’s Awful, Not Good, Very Bad Poll Results

Luxon has been doing his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not all of its MPs will be coming back alive.

Ian Powell: Policy Vacuum Enables For-profit Corporate General Practice Ownership By Stealth

In 2014 nearly 40% of GP respondents were practice owners. By 2022 it had declined to 31%. The number of GPs working in GP-owned practice has also fallen from 73% in 2015 to 64% in 2022.

Gordon Campbell: On Iran Killing Its Rappers, And Searching For The Invisible Dr. Reti

Health Minister Dr. Shane Reti has been only a ghostly presence of the government’s front bench, in a case of the incredible shrinking Minister. Meanwhile, leaked documents reveal planned funding cuts of over $100M to public hospitals that are already sinking.

Peter Dunne: MPs Unusually Quiet On Pay Rise

This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the economy on the brink of recession, massive cutbacks in public expenditure, public sector redundancies and rising unemployment.

Join Scoop Pro

Submit News

Become a Member

Community Scoop

More RSS News Alerts

Wellington Scoop